Many types and sizes of tools and other articles are necessary in construction work or in any type of repair business. These tools and other articles must be readily available to the workman who is doing the constructing or repairing, and since he oftentimes does not know what problems he will face on a given day or what tools he will need, he needs to transport many tools and other items wherever he goes. Thus, the construction worker and the repairman need as much article carrier space in their vehicles as possible. Moreover, this article carrier space should be easily accessible to the workman so that he does not have to keep climbing onto and off of his vehicle to get tools and other articles. This lessens the chance of an on-the-job accident occurring due to unnecessary climbing in and out of the vehicle. It is also a requirement that the article carriers allow a minimum of movement by the articles when the articles are in the article carrier and when the vehicle is being driven so that the articles are not easily damaged.
A large number of such workers use land vehicles that have a tailgate-type closure at the rear of their vehicle (e.g., pickup truck) between two sidewalls. To date, the article carriers designed to be attached to these vehicles have been designed to attach to the sides of these vehicles. While serving the purpose of providing easily accessible storage space for tools and other articles, these side-attached article carriers tend to be cumbersome and also sometimes substantially increase the exterior dimensions of the vehicle. Furthermore, such article carriers do not possess the extra protection feature of always being closed when the tailgate is closed. Thus, frequently one may drive off without properly securing these sidewall-mounted article carriers shut, damaging the articles therein.
Thus, there exists a need in the art for an article carrier which can be attached to a land vehicle in a location that is easily accessible to a person without having the person climb onto the vehicle, which does not increase the size of the vehicle, and that is automatically and securely closed whenever the closure is shut.
This invention fulfills this need and many other needs apparent to the skilled person in the relevant art once given the following disclosure: